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I have done both. honestly it depends between, track, show, daily, all, what city you live (how good are the roads), type of car.
Coils:
- Great performance, consistent
- Easy to make small adjustments and realize the effect
- have to buy good ones, not the best but get something with a reputation. My brother and i have had good luck with k-sport coils for example..good price and good performance for what you get. You want top line KW is the way to go (speaking for euro cars of course).
- track cars should have coils
- if you are putting them on your daily and don't plan to put it on the floor then i can see this being a good daily option.
I blew too many oil pans, bushings, wheel bearings, bumpers and lips...for daily driving this wasn't suitable and I liked my car low but also high enough that i could generally drive it but some cities just have bad roads.
Air Ride:
- recently installed on my e39, researched for about 2 months...between coils and air. I went with air because it has come so far.
- don't get manual air management if you want performance!
- Airlift performance make amazing struts and bags! dampening, height and camber adjustment...good for my daily!
- after installation, expect to chase leaks for 4 weeks...or the first time you get a major temperature change...water and soap in a squirt bottle will make it super easy to find and fix..usually was just the teflon that didnt seat properly.
I'm going to talk about two major things, performance and cost.
Performance: Its pretty amazing what you can get out of them, you want a stiff track car for the weekend...you can do it, there are 25 dampening settings on the airlift struts...i have mine set on 8 (1=softest, 25=stiffest)...when you bump them up close to the 20 mark, its stiff and the car will corner. Don't under estimate the performance aspect...I'm still a fan of coils for track and pure performance, its hard to beat but air ride is closer then a lot of people think.
Cost: For my e39 good coilover suspension was going to run between 1800-2400 bucks, not the most expensive but good performance and trusted brands. Struts and bags for my e39, around 2200-2400 I believe, that's if you buy them separately from everything else you need.
The cost of air ride really comes from the management side, it can add on nearly 2k to your suspension:
- you go manual its cheap but you lack performance
- pressure based management, (autopilot v1/2), pricey but a happy medium between height based and manual. Its good but when people jump in or fill with a tank of gas...you have to have all the presets set for all that, its takes time and work to do that.
- height based management (accuair), its the best you can buy, expensive...i havent personally tried it for a number of reasons, cost and personal preference due to climate i was in at the time.
I have been flirting with the idea of a new car and i will go air ride for sure, i absolutely love it. The one thing i want to point out is that the next car i get and just for the sake of this post lets say i buy another e39...its going to cost me 2600 bucks at most, why?
- Management system and manifold: I can reuse that. I wont change this unless I really see a huge advancement in the management tech.
- tank and water trap: i can reuse that.
- Compressor: i can reuse that, if you don't have backup i would replace it to be safe (140-180 bucks) but i have an extra so i will reuse till i kill it.
- ABS lines, braided lines, fittings: REPLACE all of them.
My final statement is this. I can show my car, track my car and daily it...and at all times it can be what i need it to be, slammed, cruising low, stock height, 4x4 height to go into parking lots even standard cars have issues with...its really a jack of all trades air ride...is it the best in every area, no but i guarantee its performs better then you think.
Btw for all lowered car guys/girls here, you know that feeling when you give your keys to a friend, family member or significant other and you hope that your lowered car comes back in one piece? A great little feature that i absolutely love about my Autopilot v2 is that when you turn the car on it goes to a height setting of your choice automaticcaly that you preconfigure at setup, so in my case it goes to stock height and i dont worry about someone messing it up. For me i can play with all the settings and look cool.
Sorry for the long winded essay but i want to put it all out there for you guys...I support air ride for daily cars, you have a track/weekend car grab a good set of coils. I just read moose's comments above, he is on the money with that. Air Ride has its place and just like him I'm not easy on my car...the air ride is the least of my worries, it will take a beating.
Coils:
- Great performance, consistent
- Easy to make small adjustments and realize the effect
- have to buy good ones, not the best but get something with a reputation. My brother and i have had good luck with k-sport coils for example..good price and good performance for what you get. You want top line KW is the way to go (speaking for euro cars of course).
- track cars should have coils
- if you are putting them on your daily and don't plan to put it on the floor then i can see this being a good daily option.
I blew too many oil pans, bushings, wheel bearings, bumpers and lips...for daily driving this wasn't suitable and I liked my car low but also high enough that i could generally drive it but some cities just have bad roads.
Air Ride:
- recently installed on my e39, researched for about 2 months...between coils and air. I went with air because it has come so far.
- don't get manual air management if you want performance!
- Airlift performance make amazing struts and bags! dampening, height and camber adjustment...good for my daily!
- after installation, expect to chase leaks for 4 weeks...or the first time you get a major temperature change...water and soap in a squirt bottle will make it super easy to find and fix..usually was just the teflon that didnt seat properly.
I'm going to talk about two major things, performance and cost.
Performance: Its pretty amazing what you can get out of them, you want a stiff track car for the weekend...you can do it, there are 25 dampening settings on the airlift struts...i have mine set on 8 (1=softest, 25=stiffest)...when you bump them up close to the 20 mark, its stiff and the car will corner. Don't under estimate the performance aspect...I'm still a fan of coils for track and pure performance, its hard to beat but air ride is closer then a lot of people think.
Cost: For my e39 good coilover suspension was going to run between 1800-2400 bucks, not the most expensive but good performance and trusted brands. Struts and bags for my e39, around 2200-2400 I believe, that's if you buy them separately from everything else you need.
The cost of air ride really comes from the management side, it can add on nearly 2k to your suspension:
- you go manual its cheap but you lack performance
- pressure based management, (autopilot v1/2), pricey but a happy medium between height based and manual. Its good but when people jump in or fill with a tank of gas...you have to have all the presets set for all that, its takes time and work to do that.
- height based management (accuair), its the best you can buy, expensive...i havent personally tried it for a number of reasons, cost and personal preference due to climate i was in at the time.
I have been flirting with the idea of a new car and i will go air ride for sure, i absolutely love it. The one thing i want to point out is that the next car i get and just for the sake of this post lets say i buy another e39...its going to cost me 2600 bucks at most, why?
- Management system and manifold: I can reuse that. I wont change this unless I really see a huge advancement in the management tech.
- tank and water trap: i can reuse that.
- Compressor: i can reuse that, if you don't have backup i would replace it to be safe (140-180 bucks) but i have an extra so i will reuse till i kill it.
- ABS lines, braided lines, fittings: REPLACE all of them.
My final statement is this. I can show my car, track my car and daily it...and at all times it can be what i need it to be, slammed, cruising low, stock height, 4x4 height to go into parking lots even standard cars have issues with...its really a jack of all trades air ride...is it the best in every area, no but i guarantee its performs better then you think.
Btw for all lowered car guys/girls here, you know that feeling when you give your keys to a friend, family member or significant other and you hope that your lowered car comes back in one piece? A great little feature that i absolutely love about my Autopilot v2 is that when you turn the car on it goes to a height setting of your choice automaticcaly that you preconfigure at setup, so in my case it goes to stock height and i dont worry about someone messing it up. For me i can play with all the settings and look cool.
Sorry for the long winded essay but i want to put it all out there for you guys...I support air ride for daily cars, you have a track/weekend car grab a good set of coils. I just read moose's comments above, he is on the money with that. Air Ride has its place and just like him I'm not easy on my car...the air ride is the least of my worries, it will take a beating.
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